Ditto the smog watch in southern Ontario and the thread count in your neighbour's swimsuit -- those are but pulmonary and visceral distractions.

Summer, it says here, is all about sounds.

Some are relentlessly urban: the roar of a lawnmower; the dreadful whoooomph! of $17-worth of steak turning to charcoal when you finally manage to light the propane barbecue; the pile-driving bass of guys cruising with more car than cranium.

Still others are pleasing, if not downright pastoral: the buzz and whistle of a red-winged blackbird; the chirrup of a field cricket; the scrape and splash of paddle on gunnel and water.

But none says summer like the keening of a cicada -- surely nature's most deprived lovers.

Cicadas are large (thumb-sized and bigger) hard-bodied flies that put in an appearance more often audio than visual during the summer months.

Adult Cicadas spend between three to 17 years underground in the dirt, has risen into the light and air and freedom of the summer day to find a mate in the few weeks that it has left to live. Source.